Charging phone explodes, severely burns 12-year-old boy

Family members said that on the evening of April 1, after dinner, 12-year-old Sung A Tuan picked up his phone that was charging to play. When the phone exploded, Tuan shouted and his family discovered it. He was taken to a local medical facility for first aid and then transferred to Dien Bien General Hospital.

The doctor determined that Tuan had burns on both hands, abdomen, left chest and left face. On the left side of the patient’s chest there was a tear that penetrated the diaphragm down to the abdomen. The patient had difficulty breathing.

Doctor Quang Xuan Ngoc, Department of General Surgery and Orthopedic Trauma, Dien Bien General Hospital, said that the child had pneumothorax, left pleural effusion, and a puncture wound through the chest, abdominal cavity, and diaphragm.

During surgery, the doctor discovered that the patient's internal injuries were more severe than initially diagnosed, with the puncture extending from the outside through the intercostal muscles into the pleura, through the diaphragm to the liver and gastric serosa.

After more than two hours, the emergency surgery team successfully saved the child patient.

This is the first victim of the phone explosion that Dien Bien General Hospital has received. "The patient is out of danger, but the pain and fear are still present in his mind," the doctor said.

Doctors recommend that if a phone explodes while charging, the device must be quickly disconnected, the victim's wound bandaged, and then quickly transferred to a medical facility.